Orange gives MNO perspective in new 6G project
Orange is providing operator input to the new European DETERMINISTIC6G project with €5.7m ($6.1m) funding. Coordinated by Sweden’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Ericsson, there are 10 partners, others being B&R, IUVO, and SSSA, KTH, University of Stuttgart, Silicon Austria Labs, Cumucore and Montimage in addition to Orange.
The main objective is to take account of applications within industrial automation, manufacturing, transport, medicine and entertainment, focusing on deterministic communication with guaranteed latency at high reliability. This will help provide the basis for standardization of time-sensitive communications under 6G.
Rakuten launches network planning system
Japan’s Rakuten Symphony has launched Symworld RAN Commander as a one stop shop for automated 5G network planning and optimization. The company, which is the network solutions arm of operator Rakuten Mobile, said the system can boost RAN productivity planning by four times, compared to conventional optimization methods.
“Network planning and optimization has always been fragmented, with different teams responsible for different parts of the process,” said Narendra Narayana, president of the intelligent operations business unit at Rakuten Symphony.
“Symworld RAN Commander offers an integrated approach to RF planning and optimization on a single platform, enabling planning and optimization teams to collaborate closely with advanced tools and technologies as they design, deploy and optimize networks in a more coordinated and efficient manner.”
Telekom Austria plans to spin off its tower assets
The M&A spree in the tower segment has eased off after a couple of years of frenzied activity, but Telekom Austria has told investors that it intends to spin off its tower assets this year.
The shareholder note said that the operator’s two main shareholders, América Móvil (AMX) and Austrian state-owned wealth fund Österreichische Beteiligungs (OBAG), “have agreed to support a spin-off of the mobile towers into a separate company the shares of which are planned to be listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange and distributed proportionally to Telekom Austria AG’s shareholders. A decision about the spin-off is subject to all relevant corporate approvals.”
Ericsson leads new project focused on deterministic 6G
Ericsson is leading a team of 10 organizations that will run the Deterministic6G (D6G) project, which aims to address unpredictability in 6G performance so that it can support time-sensitive applications. Ericsson’s academic partner in the project is the Swedish KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
D6G will be funded to the tune of €6m and will target applications in the industrial automation, manufacturing, transport, medicine and entertainment sectors, where guaranteed low latency and reliability are important.
The group will work on a new wireless transmission design and advanced machine learning algorithms to support deterministic latency behaviour. The project will also explore new approaches to time synchronization, network security and integration of computational nodes into future 6G systems.
Other partners in the project are Orange, B&R, IUVO, SSSA, University of Stuttgart, Silicon Austria Labs, Cumucore and Montimage.